NEW DELHI: In what is being seen as second attempt on his life in less than a year, Lashkar-e-Taiba co-founder Amir Hamza was shot at by unknown gunmen outside a news channel’s office in Lahore on Thursday.The incident happened when Hamza (67) was going home after from local TV station named and was accompanied with a Pak judge Nazir Ahmad Ghazi. Two armed men on motorcycle opened fire near a Pindi stop in Lahore. He was subsequently rushed to the hospital.Last year in May, there was a similar bid on his life but he had survived after being shot in the waist area by unidentified men. Sources attributed the shooting as internal rift within LeT factions. Hamza, who belongs to Gujranwala city in Pakistan’s Punjab, was declared a global terrorist by the US in Aug 2012. The top LeT ideologue was referred to as ‘Afghan Mujahideen’ and was close to Hafiz Saeed and Abdul Rehman Makki who had appointed him on Lashkar’s central committee. In the early 200s, Hamza had been entrusted with setting up bases in India and he was among one of the terrorists involved in 2005 Bengaluru attack on Indian Institute of Science as well. “He also headed the publication division of Lashkar and write books like ‘Qafila Da’wat aur Shahadat (Caravan of Proselytizing and Martydom’, Shahrah-e-Bahisht (Road to paradise),” said a source. In 2018, Saeed had him form another outfit named Jaish-e-Manqafa in the wake of ban on Lashkar and Jamat-ud-Dawah. The move had fueled rumors of a rift in Lashkar’s top brass but they turned out to be untrue later. According to US Treasury department, Hamza, a member of LeT’s central advisory committee, actively maintained Lashkar’s relationships with other groups under the direction of its emir Hafiz Muhammad Saeed. “Hamza has led an LeT-associated charity and was also an officer and member of a Lashkar’s university trust that was led by Saeed. Hamza’s responsibilities as of mid-2010 also included publishing propaganda on behalf of Lashkar. Hamza has served as editor of an LeT weekly newspaper and was also contributing articles to the LET publication,” says the website.“Hamza was also one of three LeT terrorists designated to negotiate the release of detained Lashkar members and also served as the head of LET’s “special campaigns” department,” it adds.
